


Tougher Than She Looks

by foxyrules



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2018-10-18 21:47:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 18
Words: 21,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10625775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxyrules/pseuds/foxyrules
Summary: Bulma is taken hostage by the new RR army. Who will save her, or will she save herself? Takes place during the 3 year gap. An interesting story of how they got together. Currently rated M for violence and language. Maybe Lemons in later chapters. My First Fan Fiction, Enjoy.





	1. Frozen

Vegeta was training in the Gravity Room when he heard a knock on the door. He knew who it would be, seeing that is was about time for lunch.

“Lunch is almost ready, just come in the house when you’re finished.”

He didn’t care much for the bubbly blonde that was constantly trying to be nice to him, but he did like her cooking, so he would let her live. He had decided to stay at the Brief’s compound, if only to train for the big battle with the androids, although he was not sure how much longer he would stay. The old man did give him everything he needed to train and the ditzy blonde was giving him all the food he could eat, and that woman. He didn’t know if he really liked her or really hated her, sometimes it seemed like both.

She was the only person he ever met that didn’t seem to be afraid of him, well not afraid and not completely clueless.   She was the only one who would give him as hard a time as he gave her, but she was clever. He knew she wasn’t strong, yet she never backed down from people who could do some real damage to her, and then on top of it, she would win most of her arguments.   In a way he kind of respected her tenacity, he could see why she would be friends with fighters, no one else would have the balls or skills to go against her. But why was he thinking about her? and often, maybe it was time to move out.

It was strange staying in one place for so long. He was used to picking up and staying on the move; after his planet was destroyed, he was determined not to get too attached to any of the places he visited. He was sure that he would leave soon.

He finished out his training routine and washed up. With a growl from his stomach he began his trek to the main house for lunch. But when he got there everyone was frozen and the TV was on, something seemed to be happening that had caused smoke to come out of some building.

“It seems that there has been an explosion in the Capsule Complex parking garage. We have no reports on number injured, but it is said that the garage was likely to have been empty for some remodeling. There are no reports as to whether this was some sort of accident or … This just in. There has been a group to come forward and claim responsibility for the explosion; they are calling themselves the Red Ribbon Army.”

“Oh, no. I hope everyone is alright!” Mrs. Briefs was looking from the TV to her husband. “Hon. Do you think she is down there?” Dr. Briefs seemed to be in a state of shock, but his wife’s question shook him out of it.

“No, I’m sure she is fine. It was only the garage. If she had any work over there it would be in the main building.” Suddenly the phone rang. “See that’s probably Bulma calling to let us know she’s fine.” Dr. Briefs picked up the phone. At this point Vegeta began to grab a few bites to eat while only slightly paying attention to the screen. “Hello. What? No I haven’t seen this. Change the channel to 5.”

Mrs. Briefs punched a few buttons on the remote, then shrieked, “Oh My God! It’s Bulma!” Suddenly all of Vegeta’s attention was now directed to the TV set. What they saw was Bulma in what looked like her office only she was tied to her chair with two uniformed men standing next to her with some rather large guns. She didn’t look good. Her clothes were torn and bloody and her bottom lip was split as if she had been punched in the face.


	2. Calm and Collected

Meanwhile at the Capsule Complex (the downtown office complex for the Capsule Corporation).

Bulma had been having a bad day. Nothing seemed to be going right the alarm didn’t go off, her coffee wasn’t ready this morning, she couldn’t find the clothes she had planned to wear for her big meetings, she was late for her meeting because the parking garage was closed, and all on top of a spectacular month which she had finally broken up with Yamcha. There really wasn’t much to break off, she had just finally decided that she needed a change and that Yamcha had had plenty of time to get his act together, which meant that he was probably never going to grow up. She was just settling in and preparing for her next meeting with a charity group when a large boom was heard and the building began to shake.

“That’s odd.” Bulma quickly turned her computer to security mode to check and see if any of the labs or displays had been affected by the shaking. That’s when she found that the boom had come from the parking garage. But she noticed something else that was strange. All of the security on the ground floor was gone. “They should always have at least one out there. Something is wrong.” Bulma quickly typed in the evacuation code into the computer to alert all of the employees to get out of the building.

“Ms. Briefs, there seems to be something wrong, the evacuation alarm is ..”

“I know. I activated it. I want you to get out and get anyone else out that you can, I will join you once I secure a few things in here. And if you see any strange people, follow protocol; just get down and out of sight.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

Bulma started to shut down different areas of the display labs that were already clear and was starting to run the security measures for the data she was keeping on her computer. That’s when she heard the loud banging on the reception room door. She knew she was out of time, but she was on the 52nd floor. There was nowhere for her to go, so she just sat back in her chair, ready for what was about to come through that door.

“Welcome to Capsule Corp., how may I help you?” Bulma was determined to stay cool and calm. Her main concern was the workers in her building having a chance to get out safely, and she knew the more she talked the more time they would have.

“Yeah, you can help us, by shutting the fuck up!” One of the smaller henchmen with one of the bigger guns shouted at her.

“Now, now, boys, we don’t want to be rude. Ms. Briefs is the owner of this establishment, and she seems more than courteous.” A rather handsome man walked into the office, he was wearing a generals uniform with the, oh, so familiar, red ribbon army insignia on his chest. “You see, Bulma, I can call you Bulma can’t I?”

“It’s Dr. Briefs.”

“Oh, I see you want to be formal, that’s fine. Dr. Briefs, I am General Green. I have a mission that I am on and I wanted to see if you would be a peach and help me carry it out.” Bulma just stared back at him. “Well, we are looking for two things that you have that we want. Money, and some new technology for our efforts.”

“What kind of technology and what kind of efforts? You see many people ask the Capsule Corporation for those things. There is even a form that you can fill out. We like to give away money to many projects. What’s it for starving children, animals, perhaps you would like us to plant a few trees for energy conservation.”

“No, I don’t think you understand. Our efforts are less humanitarian than your usual clients.” He was getting closer to her now, and his henchmen followed. “You seem to be a nice girl. All we want from you is a short PSA and a few computer chips.”   Bulma stood before they had a chance to hover over her.

“I’m afraid that all TV spots and interviews have to be scheduled through my secretary.” He was starting to lose his patience. He obviously didn’t know that Bulma had faced the RR army before, and he really didn’t know that if he put her on TV she was sure that one of the Z fighters would come and save her. But she didn’t want to look too eager; besides, she liked pissing off macho men who think that they are smarter or stronger than she was.

Suddenly, the henchman who had told her to shut up before slapped her right in the face. She was dazed, but not seriously hurt. “You see I am a reasonable man, but my associates don’t have the control that I do.”

“Perhaps they need shorter leashes.” Another slap. The general raised his hand to stop any more hits from his men.

“Nothing would make me happier then to see you walk out of here alive, but I’m afraid that we will need to make you pretty for the cameras, or no one will take us seriously.” Then he snapped his fingers and two of his men attempted to grab her arms, but being around fighters most of her life she had picked up a few things. She used their momentum to collide them into each other as they crashed into the bookcases; she moved her chair between her and the mouthy one with the big gun and grabbed some pepper spray she had put on her desk. While she was looking to make an opening another tall man came at her and she use her spray, but he didn’t seem to know it. That’s when he got her with a punch right in the mouth and then darkness.


	3. A Message of Genius

Bulma awoke to find herself tied to her chair and her face was throbbing. She could tell that they didn’t stop at one punch, and she could feel what would probably be a black eye. _‘Great piss them off, that’ll be fun. What was I thinking?’_ Then Bulma turned her attention to her surroundings, there were about 8 uniformed men in the room, but two were at her side and the general seemed to have stepped out. She heard some of the men talking.

“You know she looks familiar.” One crocodile headed man said. _‘Oh shit! He knows!’_

“You idiot, of course she looks familiar, she’s freakin’ Bulma Briefs! Her picture is always on the news or in some magazine.”

“Oh, Yeah. Hey I wonder if it’s true that she has little green aliens in her back yard?”

“Don’t be stupid! You can’t possibly believe those crazy gossip magazines. Just keep your mouth shut and wait for orders.”

_‘Whew! That was close. I guess leaking the story to the rattiest gossip rag in town prevented everyone from believing in the Nameks.’_ Green walked in the room and everyone stood at attention, well except for Bulma, of course.

“Men we are going to start the broadcast in 2 minutes. Ah, I see that our guest star is awake. I hope that you can still see well because I have a short statement for you to read.” Some of the soldiers were setting up a camera and preparing to broadcast, while another shoved a statement into her face.

“You will read this on camera, just like it says on the paper, and don’t forget to smile.” The camera crew finished setting up and they were signaling that they were ready. Then another man at her computer patched them through to one of the news stations. One of the monitors displayed the news feed. She heard the announcer set up the situation.

“It appears now that members of the once defunct Red Ribbon Army have stormed the Capsule Corporation Complex and appear to have Dr. Bulma Briefs as a hostage.” The solder on her left tapped her with the end of his gun to get her to start talking.

“My name is Dr. Bulma Briefs, president and CEO of Capsule Corporation. I have been taken by the…,” _‘are they serious’_ “Glorious Red Ribbon Army.”

She rolled her eyes, which of course resulted in a gun shoved to her head and a command to, “Just read what’s there.” Now, Bulma was not really a glutton for punishment, but the writing was really bad.

“I am authorizing payment for my ransom in the amount of …I can’t read that.”

“Ten Thousand Million Zeni.” _‘Damn they think we’d pay that?’_ (A/N:That’s about $100,000,000,000 US)

“Ten thousand million zeni, and safe passage for my captors to …ar-ca-pe-so?” There was that gun again, this time it didn’t move back. “Hey, I didn’t write it!” Then Green decided he would stand up and make the demands.

\--

As General Green was spouting out his demands, Yamcha and Krillin had already made their way to the Briefs’ home trying to find out what should be done. At the first nudge of the gun to her baby’s head Mrs. Briefs collapsed in terror. Vegeta was fuming. _‘What the fuck! She is supposed to be here and fix my shit! How is she going to do that, if she gets herself killed.’_ He wanted to fly in there and bash all their heads in, _‘Stupid humans.’_ But everyone was concerned that if they tried to get to her, would she get killed first.

“Do you have a map of the building? Maybe we can find a way in, or figure out where she is?”

“Yes, Krillin, that’s good. I have one on my computer in my lab.” Yamcha was getting Mrs. Briefs onto the couch while all the others went to Dr. Briefs’ lab that he used at home. He began to pull up the plans for the building, while Krillin turned on one of the TVs to keep watching the live feed. That General guy was still talking and Bulma was still in the background with two guns to her head. “Here are the plans. Look, it’s a message from Bulma, it looks like she sent it before they got to her.”

                  **Hey Dad,**

**Something is about to happen. I moved the CC Complex** **controls over to your lab.**

**The encryption key is from the standard code. I hear them coming.**

**Love You**

**B**

“What does that mean?” Krillin moved closer to Dr. Briefs.

“Well it means that we can now see all of the cameras and video and we have control over the automated locks and lock down sequences.” Dr. Briefs began typing in the code sequence to unlock the system.

“Wow. I guess Bulma really is a genius!” That idiot Scarface stepped into the room with that stupid grin on his face. Vegeta was studying the 3D model of the building on the hologram computer memorizing the hallways and rooms.

Krillin noticed where Vegeta’s attention was and asked, “Where is Bulma now?”

“Her office on the 52nd floor. Here.” Yamcha pointed to one of the rooms. “I recognize the background.”

Vegeta was looking at all the entry points. This is just a mission, an extraction. He had done this dozens of times. Frieza often wanted him to get something out safe before they ended a planet, when negotiations went south or he just did care to ask for what he wanted. The only difference was, this time he couldn’t blow the facility to kingdom come or just destroy the planet when he was through. He had to be more careful. His thoughts were interrupted by Krillin.

“Hey, guys, they cut the feed.”

“I’ve got our own feed now.” Dr. Briefs now had complete access to all the building controls they could see Bulma, the General, and all the soldiers left with her. It also looked like there were more soldiers throughout the building. Yamcha was the first to break the silence.

“Wow, there’s a lot more of them than we thought. I wonder what they want?”

“We don’t have time to find out. The more time she is with them, the more likely that she’ll die.” Vegeta grabs some of the communicators that he saw Bulma using before, when she would have to work on the gravity room but still stay in touch with the rest of the lab. “Turn this on and guide me through the building.”

“That’s a good idea, Vegeta!” Vegeta rolled his eyes. _‘Of course it was a good idea, how did someone so smart have such idiot friends?’_ Yamcha and Krillin both took a communicator set as Vegeta flew out of the house and started for the rising smoke. The other two fighters followed closely behind him. Leaving Dr. Briefs at the helm to guide them through the maze.


	4. Good Girl

Bulma was now getting really tired of the gun thing. She knew that at least one of the guys would have to be on their way by now. All she needed to do was stay put.

“Well, now that is out of the way, it is time for our second objective. Little missy you will now take us to the computer chips that we need.”

_‘So much for staying put.’_

“We are going to let you out of your chair, and if you promise to be a good girl we won’t have to tie you up.”

‘ _I’m a genius and he thinks patronizing me is going to help. But you’re the one with the gun, so I guess I’m “little miss” and a “good girl” today. Gag.’_ They cut her ties and she rubbed her wrists. “What chips are you talking about? You know we make over 5,000 chips and chip components.” Slappy raised his hand again to strike her, but Green stopped him.

“We are looking for the G-COM chip.”

“That’s just a communications chip.”

“Yes, it has the power to communicate with almost anything, all over the world, without the use of satellites. You see this will become very useful when we destroy every working satellite now orbiting the earth. This is the final part of our plan to shut down mass communications across the globe.”

“So the Red Ribbon Army is tired of trying to find the dragon balls, and just decided to take over the world the old fashioned way?” _‘Shit why did I have to say that out loud! Bulma, think before you speak!’_

“So you are familiar with our organization?”

 _‘Well if stealth won’t work, maybe flattery might.’_ “Who hasn’t heard of the Red Ribbon Army. It used to be quite powerful, but then one day it seemed to fall off the face of the Earth. Why was that?”

“As you can see, we didn’t fall too far. Enough of this chitchat; where are the chips?”

“Down in the secure hold, in the basement levels.” If they had to go somewhere else at least it would take some time. They moved into the hallway, and stood there waiting for the elevator.

000

“Boys, they are moving her now.” Dr. Briefs could see everything from his home lab, but unfortunately there was no sound so he couldn’t tell where they were going.

The three warriors had landed near the building to figure out the best plan of attack. “We need to get to her before they reach wherever it is they are going.” Yamcha was worried, he knew that he should be taking the lead, but he just didn’t know what to do.

“Maybe we should try getting in and causing a distraction, while one of us finds Bulma and gets her out of there.”

“Good idea, Krillin. Maybe you should go in from the main entrance while I take the upper level. And Vegeta can …where did he go?”

“Maybe he left?”

“We don’t have time to worry about him.” The two warriors headed into the building.

000

While the halls were not littered with cameras, the elevators were all monitored. Bulma managed to get behind all of the guards and was backed into the corner where she could be seen by the camera. Silently she mouthed to her father, whom she could only hope was watching now. “G-C-O-M. LEVEL-2.”

000

“Vegeta, they are taking her down to the basement levels, they seem to be after a communications chip prototype that is stored there. I can try to slow them down.”

“No, don’t. If they figure out you are interfering they might panic.” Vegeta was hovering along the building wall trying to pinpoint Bulma’s ki. _‘Damn it! Why does she have to be so weak?’_ Vegeta had overheard Krilin and Yamcha and didn’t have any intention of getting involved with their pathetic plan, but he knew that he could let the commotion, those two buffoons would make, work to his advantage. _‘Ah. Found you. And those two idiots are moving in as well’_

000

The elevator stopped and as the doors opened they saw no one. “Where are the guards that were securing this floor? What is going on here? You two, Smash, Bang, get out there and find out what’s going on.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“The rest of you, lets move out. I want to get these chips, NOW!”

_‘Someone is here. But where are they? Why don’t they just come and get me?’_

“Move it Sweetheart, or I’ll have to show you what this gun is good for.”

“I’d like to show her, what she’s good for!”

 

__

Dr. Briefs was an old military man back in his day and he knew that the Z fighters were very strong but he needed someone with great tactical skills to get his baby out of there. After being around Vegeta it did not take him long to figure out that he was going to be the one with the wherewithal to get the job done without further injury to his daughter. “To get to the basement levels, they have to take the primary elevators down to the ground floor with the main entrance. Then they have to cross a few hallways to get to the secure facility entrance. That will take them down to the underground levels of the building; this is where the G-COM chip that the army is after is stored.”

“Alright, Krilin and I will stop them before they get to the basement entrance.”

“You two be careful.” Dr. Briefs noticed that Vegeta wasn’t commenting on their plan, so he switched to a private channel between him and Vegeta. “Vegeta, what’s your plan?”

“I’m following her ki, but they seem to be prepared for an assault when they hit the ground level. If they make it below ground, without someone with her, we won’t have much chance to save her.”

“There is a secondary entrance to the basement levels that I can get you in, but only for a short time while they are opening the main entrance.”

\--


	5. Hostage Situation

Bulma was feeling more than a little uneasy about heading into the basement. She heard some commotion from the main floor and hoped that her time with the RR army had come to an end.

“Who are those guys?,” one of the henchmen shouted before running off into the fray.

Bulma didn’t have a chance to see who had come to her rescue as she was pulled into a small corridor that led to the basement levels. “Open the door, Bitch, and hurry!” She knew that the door would not open unless her father activated it, with the system turned over to him not even she could open the door. She just hoped that whomever it was that came to save her could do so before her captors realized that they were stuck.

\--

Krillin and Yamcha’s plan to cause a distraction and swoop in was completely ruined when they realized that Bulma was being moved to the basement. They were left with no choice but to fly in head-first and try to rescue her that way. Only they weren’t counting on the RR army being so prepared. It was taking way to long to get through these guys, and just when Yamcha thought he had a glimpse of Bulma, some more crazy gun-toters came running down the hallway.

“Shit! Krillin, they have her and they are almost at the basement.”

\--

“Okay, Old Man, I’m at the door.”

“Alright, Vegeta, I’m going to activate it, but after you go in I wont have any eyes or ears on you. All communication will be dead. Those levels are radio silent. I am going to work around the system, so when you get Bulma come back to this door and type in 767 [SOS] on the keypad, so I’ll know its you.”

“Fine.”

“You will only have 3 seconds to open the door and get inside without any other alarms getting set off. Okay, in 3…2…1.”

\--

Bulma could hear them getting closer and she was trying to do her best impression of someone really trying to open the door without being killed. “I don’t know what’s wrong, it must be a glitch in the system.”

Green was furious and really starting to panic, as the screams were getting closer. “If you don’t get that door open, it’s not going to matter who is coming down that hall because I will blow your big brains all over the floor.” And that’s when, to Bulma’s shock, the basement level doors opened. And before she even knew what was happening, Bulma along with General Green and what was left of his personal guard were behind the basement door and out of danger, with the exception of Bulma, of course.

_‘Shit, Dad, what are you thinking? How am I supposed to get out of this now?’_ Up to this point Bulma had managed to keep her cool because she knew that her friends would be able to save her. But now, now she was in the most secure part of her facility and no one would be able to get in until General Green wanted to get out or until the 24 hour lockdown was over _._

General Green was recovering from his earlier panic. “See how easy that was. Now, lets get that chip.”

Bulma was pushed in front by the solder she had dubbed, Slappy. She was not up for much more of a fight, now that her only hope of escape seemed gone, and it was up to her to stay alive long enough to get out of this mess.

“The chip should be in Containment Room C on the second level.” She took a deep breath and started walking to the ramp that led them down to level 2.  

Once they reached level 2 they heard someone or something moving. “What was that?” One of the henchmen started walking towards the sound. “Someone’s here. Looks like one of your science geeks didn’t make it out.”

Hiding under the desk was, “Oh my God, Violet!” Bulma rushed over to the woman on the ground to make sure she was okay. Violet was a scientist that had only started working for Capsule Corp a few months ago; she had been working in archives, which explained why she was down this far. “Why didn’t you get out when the evacuation sounded?”

“I’m sorry. I must have gotten confused when the tremor hit and gotten under my desk thinking it was an earthquake.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, when you saw everyone else run out, why didn’t you?” Then Violet started laughing. “Are you okay? I won’t let them hurt you. You don’t have to be nervous.”

“Ha, nervous! It’s you who needs to be nervous. For a second there I thought you knew.” Bulma leaned back from her colleague with suspicion. “I’m with them.” Bulma gasped and backed away.

“You had someone on the inside this whole time? Why did you need me?”

“Revenge, of course.” Violet said as she got up and stood with General Green.

“Did you really think we didn’t know who you really were? After all you and your little friend did to nearly destroy all that RR worked for. Did you think we weren’t keeping tabs on you?” General Green smiled, “You weren’t difficult to find.”

Dread, that’s what it was, this feeling. She was now locked up in a room completely weaponless, hero-less, and with a bunch of people that had really good reasons to want her dead.

“You see,” Violet walked towards Bulma, “you were never gonna make it out of here alive. Not with me as a backup hostage. I can see it now. Bulma Briefs dies tragically trying to save one of her workers during a hostage situation.” That’s when Violet kicked Bulma in the gut. As she was doubled over in pain she could hear the last orders from General Green.

“We are off to get the chip. You three take care of her.”

Then Violet added, “ And have some fun while you’re at it.”


	6. Rescue

A/N: Warning this chapter is a little darker and slightly rapey.

The three men that were left with Bulma started talking. No doubt deciding what their fun would be and who would get to go first. “Slappy” seemed to be the winner of this little contest. And Mr. “Mace-doesn’t-work-on-me” got to guard the door while “Gun-in-your-face” moved to hold her down.

Gun-in-face grabbed her hands and she started kicking and screaming as he dragged her up to one of the tabletops. Bulma could hear glass break from him slamming her down on the table. She felt her legs being held down by Slappy, while Gunny pulled her top over her head to tie her hands down. As Gunny moved to keep her legs from thrashing, Slappy got on top of her and started smelling her hair. “You know. I’ve always wanted to fuck you, all those days of watching you and jerking off to your pictures is finally paying off. You gonna scream for me? I love it when they scream.”

Suddenly he stopped. Something got his attention. The big hulking No-Mace guy wasn’t in the doorway anymore. “Dart, go find out what’s wrong with him.” Dart, hurried and covered Bulma’s eyes with his bandana to make her easier to control while he was away. Slappy turned his attention back to Bulma. “Now, where were we? …Oh yes, lets hear that pretty voice of yours.” Bulma started shaking and tears began to roll down her face as he hiked up her skirt and began undoing his pants.

Another shout and gunfire was heard down the hall. Slappy stood up on the table with his feet on either side of Bulma’s waist. “What is going on out there? Can’t you two knuckleheads do anything right?”

“Sorry, they are unavailable right now,” a short man with black flame-like hair stood in the doorway, “but you’ll soon be joining them, in the other-world.”

Bulma heard something fire and a loud thud next to her, then she heard footsteps coming towards her. Her heart was pounding and she thought the voice she heard sounded familiar, but with everything that was happening she wasn’t sure who it was. Then she felt a hand on her arm.

\--

Vegeta had been working his way through the maze of the basement levels. Keeping an eye on Bulma’s ki. He was surprised when he didn’t feel it wavering that much. _‘She must know I’m here or she is better at keeping her head than I thought._ ’

After a few more minutes he noticed another ki join them. All of these power levels were so small it’s a wonder he could even sense them. Then he felt Bulma’s ki panic. He knew he had to get to her. Finally he could hear them, only now there were just 4 power levels, Bulma and 3 others.

Vegeta could hear the 3 men talking. “So it’s settled. I’ll go first while Dart holds, then Dart has his turn, and Hans will guard the door until his turn. We’ll have to be quick before the boss comes back.”

Vegeta didn’t hear what they were taking turns doing, but he could come up with a few answers. It wouldn’t matter. Taking them out one at a time would be easy enough, especially when they left one out in the hall all alone.

A rustle here, a ki blast there and the first man was gone. This drew out the second, who got a few shots off before being turned into dust. He walked into the doorway and saw the last man on top of Bulma. _‘Dead man.’_

The man was then standing over her as he started to yell about his comrades, then Vegeta spoke “Sorry, they are unavailable right now, but you’ll soon be joining them, in the other-world.” The man fell to the floor as Vegeta sent a ki blast through his face.

Vegeta started to walk towards Bulma as he noticed the position she was in he couldn’t help but get mad. ‘I should have made them suffer.’

Bulma was shaking, her eyes were covered, her shirt was wrapped around her hands and tied to the table, and her skirt was bunched around her waist. He could smell the man’s sent around her, but he could tell that he had gotten there before any lecherous deed had been done. ‘Damn it. That was a little too close, I should have gotten here sooner.’

He moved to release her hands, but at his touch Bulma shuddered and, as much as she could, curled up into a ball. He decided to remove her blindfold first. “You’re okay.”

“Vegeta?” He made quick work of her ties, and picked up the lab coat that Violet had been wearing, before she blew her cover, and handed it to Bulma.   “How?” Bulma asked as she adjusted her skirt.

“Your father.”

“Right.”

“The others?”

“They went after the chip. We don’t have to worry about it. The emergency protocols will not allow anyone to leave with any equipment. They’ll either be captured or if they try hard enough to get out, the system will eliminate them.” Vegeta nodded. “But we can’t get out, not for another 23 hours, not without an outside override.”

“I’ve got it. Let’s go.” Bulma stood for a moment but her legs quickly buckled, luckily Vegeta was quick to steady her again.

“I just need a minute.” But apparently a minute was too long for Vegeta, who just picked up Bulma bridal style and started moving towards the way out. Along the way Bulma blacked out.

\--

“Here it is. I told you we wouldn’t need that woman to get the chip.”

“Great, Colonel, now what is your plan to get us out?”

“The emergency system is supposed to let people out. We had the safety drills before we were allowed to start working. As long as I have my pass, the doors should open.”

The pair began to walk out of the containment room when a voice came over the innercom above, “Warning, you do not have the proper clearance to remove items from this room. Please replace the items and proceed to exit.”

“What? I thought you said it would let us out!”

“I don’t know what’s going on. I have clearance.”

They began to leave the room again. “Warning: Failure to replace items before leaving will result in lockdown, you have 10 seconds to replace items and exit the room.”

“This is ridiculous. Just blow the panel and we’ll walk out of here.”

“This is a final warning, tampering with security equipment is a violation of protocol. Any further attempt to leave with items will result in extreme decontamination. Side effects may include: red eyes, irritation of skin, burns, and permanent death. Capsule Corporation indemnifies themselves of any liability after this point.”

“What does that mean?” Violet got out her security card to look at the definitions on the back.

General Green was now in full panic mode decided that it was better to get out of this place than get caught. “I don’t know but I’m not waiting to find out.”

“No! Wait!”

General Green made one last attempt to blow open the door with some low-grade explosives that were left from the parking garage. After setting off the small charge, which did nothing to open the door, they heard the voice again, “Decontamination protocol activated. Thank you for choosing Capsule Corp. good bye. Decontamination commencing in 10 seconds…9…8…7…6


	7. Panic Attack

When she came to, she was in the air. They were flying. His big strong arms holding her tight, just like old times. Those times when Yamcha held her and she knew that nothing could touch her, nothing would happen. Only this wasn’t Yamcha. Her guardian was Vegeta. Vegeta of all people! There had to be something wrong with this picture. _‘Vegeta doesn’t care about me, why would he?’_ But there he was solid as a rock, holding her, carrying her. She just couldn’t believe it.

“I’ve got her. We’re out of the building heading back to you.” He was talking on one of the coms she used in her lab. Then she realized what he said.

“No, not back. Just go. Go anywhere, but home, right now!” Vegeta understood. She had been through a lot and there would only be more things to go through when they got back. So he did as she asked and flew.

Bulma was glad to see that they were not heading back home. She didn’t want to stop, she was afraid that if they stopped she might crumble and she had gone through too many things today to fall apart now. After a few minutes she realized that it was getting harder for her to breathe. “Stop, stop! I need to get down.” Vegeta could sense panic in her voice, so found a spot and landed. It was the middle of a forest clearing by a lake. The second he landed Bulma squirmed out of his arms and began walking furiously away from him.

He knew what was happening. He had seen it before, many times with new soldiers under Freeza’s command. After their first bloody battle or on particularly bad purges, some of the soldiers would loose it. Some would just have their moment and recover, while others never got over it. He had even felt it once on his first purge, but his father had taught him how to calm it.

Her heart was racing and it was getting harder and harder to take a breath. _‘Breathe.’_ She tried walking to get her body to reset. _‘Breathe.’_ Nothing. She tried to hold on to a tree to ground herself. _‘Breathe.’_ Then, everything started spinning. She closed her eyes. _‘Breathe.’_ The spinning wasn’t stopping and she got more scared. _‘Breathe!’_ She grabbed her shoulders and crouched down. _‘Shit!’_ Her heart was racing and everything seemed to be spinning around her. _‘Bre…’_ Something pulled her backward. Something pulled her into a solid wall of warmth that engulfed her. _‘Finally something that wasn’t spinning.’_ She turned into the wall and held tight.

Vegeta was holding her and pressed her heart to his, then he started to breathe deep and slow. He knew that this was the best way to get her to do the same. It didn’t take long. Her heart rate started to slow to a more normal pace and her breathing became deeper until they matched each other. During this time he couldn’t help but notice how good she smelled, even through the fear and panic, her sent was delicious and familiar.

Bulma was now getting more aware of her surroundings. What had happened seemed to be falling away and it was replaced by…by?…by HIM! All of him, his warmth, the beating of his heart - so slow and strong- his scent; it was so calming and comfortable. He was like a warm blanket on a cold stormy night; she just wanted to curl up and stay asleep forever. But she knew she couldn’t, she had to wake up and start dealing with the things around her.

When she stopped breathing deeply and started to breathe at her normal pace, Vegeta loosened his grip. She leaned away from him and rested her forehead on his chest. “I think I’m okay now!” Vegeta stood them both up and made sure she was able to stay on her feet. “Yeah. I’m good.” Bulma was wiping the water from her eyes. “We can go back now.”

Vegeta walked up to her and let her hold onto his neck as he swooped her up behind her knees. He started flying them back to the house. There was silence on the way home.

\--

Going home was the three-ring circus that she thought it would be. When they landed in the back garden Vegeta set Bulma on the ground and she took deep breath letting out a sigh. “Now it starts.”

Vegeta looked mildly puzzled at Bulma’s reaction, until.

“OH MY GOSH! Bulma, Sweety!”

Bulma quietly groaned as she glanced back at Vegeta, “I’d run if I were you.”

“The Prince of All Saiyans does not run.”

“Suit yourself, but…” Bulma looked back and saw that her advice had been heeded, “Coward.” Not that anyone would ask, but when pressed Vegeta would maintain that he was not running away, but simply ‘ _Decided to leave.’_

A now very badly bruised and shaken Bulma was left to face her friends and family alone.


	8. Tethered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Added 3 chapters, enjoy!

After Vegeta left, Bulma was left to deal with her mother, father, ex-boyfriend, Krillin, and by this time even Goku and Gohan showed up to check on her. Everyone was concerned about the condition of her face and most of all what had happened in the underground basement.

“Oh dear, Bulma. Your beautiful face is all bloodied up. What did they do to my baby?” Her mother was in a tizzy between finding different food items to put on Bulma’s face and fixing said items for the guests she now had coming in to see her daughter.

“I’m sorry we weren’t there, Bulma. We didn’t hear about anything until we came in from fishing, and Chichi had seen it on the news.”

“That’s ok, Goku, I’m fine now, really.”

“Yeah, I guess it was a good thing Yamcha and Krillin were here, Miss Bulma.”

“Actually it was Vegeta that got Bulma out of the facility. That boy has a good head for tactical maneuvers.” Dr. Briefs seemed calm, especially when you compared him to Mrs. Briefs, but Bulma could tell that he was more than a little bit shaken about today’s events.

“We were there, too. Just a little too late on the draw to get her out before they went into the basement.” Yamcha had been in the habit of getting in a huff whenever Vegeta was mentioned. It was one of the things that bothered Bulma at the end of their relationship; she thought that it was childish and unfair.

“What happened down there, exactly, and why did you and Vegeta take so long getting back home?” Yamcha just asked the questions Bulma did NOT want to answer. She didn’t need everyone obsessing and getting dramatic.

After a long pause from Bulma, Krillin broke the ice.

“I’m sorry we didn’t get to you sooner.”

Bulma smiled as much as she could, “It’s not your fault, and I’m ok. I’m out. I’m here, and I’m breathing. And they only took a few chunks out of my face.” It wasn’t a good joke but everyone chuckled.

“THAT IS NOT FUNNY! You could have been killed or worse! It’s too dangerous out there. If you think you are going back to work, then you are out of your mind. No one is going back to that office!”

‘ _It’s official. Mom has lost it._ ’

Everyone was silent after Bunny’s outburst; no one had seen the bubbly blonde in anything but a good mood, ever. Bulma lowered her eyes, this is exactly what she wanted to avoid.

[Stomach growling sound effect]

“Oh, I guess we are all hungry. After all the excitement we never ate. It is dark now after all. I’ll get started on some food for everyone.”

_‘Leave it to Goku’s stomach to save the awkward silence.’_

Dr. Briefs followed his wife into the kitchen. When he saw a capsule on the counter, he picked it up and started to go out towards the backyard.

“Where are you going, Dear?”

“I have to go and take care of something real quick. I’ll be right back.”

“Ok, Honey, just hurry back.”

o0o

Vegeta decided to go back to his gravity room to continue his training. It wasn’t until about 2 hours later that his stomach had forced him to stop. He never did get lunch, but the whole rescue mission had him distracted from his normal Saiyan appetite. Now that everything had calmed down a bit he would finally be able to satisfy his hunger. But as Vegeta exited the gravity chamber he saw Dr. Briefs standing outside, not far from the entrance so that there was no avoiding him.

_‘Can’t they just mind their own business and leave me alone.’_

Vegeta was planning on ignoring the short man to go inside and get some food, but he didn’t get very far when Dr. Briefs stood in front of him and grabbed his right forearm, similar to a human handshake, but more firm and attached. Before Vegeta could remove his hand from this embrace Dr. Briefs put his other hand on the back of Vegeta’s hand, so as to make him return the gesture.

“I understand that you have your own reasons for what you did today. It doesn’t really matter to me what those reasons are. I just need to tell you that there is nothing I could ever do to repay you for what you have done for me and my family. You will learn this when you have children of your own one-day, that nothing in the world can replace them and no price is too high to make sure that they are happy and safe. Anything I can give you will be yours, I owe you a great deal.”

Vegeta could not say a word. There was nothing deceptive or sarcastic or pandering in this man’s speech. He could feel the sincerity and the seriousness of Dr. Briefs’ words. It was as if he was an immovable object at that moment in a world where all things were a changing lie.  The only thing he could think to do was return the grip that Dr. Briefs had on him.

Dr. Briefs knew from his time with the Saiyan prince that he was a man of few words, and most of the words he did use were not kind. So when his handshake was returned he did not want to press the matter further and they released hands.

“I thought you might be hungry, considering you did not get any lunch. So here,” Dr. Briefs took out a capsule from his pocket. “I figure you’d want to stay out of the line of questions in there. This is today’s lunch; Bunny packed it up after she came to. Of course you are welcome to eat in the house with us.”

Vegeta took the capsule and shook his head.

“That’s what I figured.” Dr. Briefs stepped back and grinned, “But don’t be surprised when the next time you show up for dinner and you get fussed over. There really is no stopping Mrs. Briefs when she wants to thank someone. I better get back before she comes looking for me and finds you.”

Vegeta shook his head as if he had just been nodding off and needed to wake up. He looked at the capsule and decided that the gravity room would be the safest place to eat his meal.


	9. Reflections

Vegeta started to walk down the halls of Frieza’s ship.   He had been summoned to witness Frieza’s version of court. These summoning’s were frequent, sometimes it was to watch some poor sap get tortured and killed, sometimes it was to hear plans about a new set of missions, and sometimes it was for Vegeta’s own humiliation.

When Vegeta opened the doors to the main hall he could hear Frieza’s cackling. Apparently tonight’s amusement had already begun; maybe it wouldn’t involve him this time. Vegeta couldn’t see anything, but he could guess that someone was being prepared for torture. But, before he could tell who or what kind of torture was in store, Zarbon approached him.

“Well, how good of you to finally join us. Dodoria and I had a bet going to see if you would show up.”

Vegeta only rolled his eyes and turned his head to look at the crowd.

“I’m surprised, Vegeta,” a large grin formed on Zarbon’s face, “I thought you would at least show a little concern for one of your own.”

A confused look came upon Vegeta’s face. _One of my own? There are no more of my own._ He pushed through the crowd to get a better view of what was going on, what he saw made is face pale.

His mother was strapped to a table her eyes were being held open while they were flaying her alive. He could see her trying to scream, but nothing was coming out. He started to look around the room and instead of the usual mix of alien elite soldiers he saw that the crowed was full of other Sayians. When he focused his attention back to his mother, she was a lot closer. She was closer because he was now holding the instrument of torture, which was half inserted into her skin. That is when he saw his mother’s black eyes turn to him, pleading for mercy.

He could feel the scream buried in his chest. He moved to help his mother, but as he did he found himself alone in his room. He had been jerked awake by his own nightmare. He looked at the clock 03:00, just an hour of sleep. He decided that some air and meditation would do him better than trying to fall asleep again.

 

XXXXX

 

It was quiet now.

All of her friends had gone home, her parents were asleep, and Bulma was left with the deafening silence of her own thoughts.

Alone in her room there was no running from herself. After all of the things that happened that day, why was she so bothered by it? Certainly she had been through worse. All the adventures with Goku, her trip to Namek, even constant threats by Vegeta never troubled her.

Maybe she was bothered because it was her place, her domain, where she was the boss and in total control. On all of her adventures she had been looking for trouble, expecting it. At Capsule Corp. there were competitive threats, corporate espionage, and hostile takeovers, but nothing where her wellbeing was in serious danger. She had felt powerless and, for the first time, like she didn’t really belong as part of the Z fighters. What could she contribute, if she couldn’t even overcome some thugs on her own turf?

A pang of paranoia went through her body as she looked around her room. Could they come here? Nothing was sacred. Nothing was really safe. She needed to get outside.

She picked up a bottle of vodka that was half empty and a cold compress for her face from the kitchen. Then she headed up to the rooftop terrace to relax.

Xxx

The terrace had several a fire pit and a cabana bed. She started the fire and laid down on the bed.

Bulma was trying to decide if all the attention from her friends and family was making her feel better or worse. On the one hand she doesn’t like to be treated like a child or some helpless woman, she wants to be part of the team and a true player in the fate of the world and her own life. On the other hand, all of the fuss and concern from everyone was serving as a distraction from dealing with all the things that she had been through. She was worried that she might have another panic attack if she let herself really think about how close she came to loosing her life.

That’s how she dealt with things, when things are tense, throw in some frivolity to deescalate things.   Just like when Vegeta came back from space the first person he ran into was Yamcha. The last thing she needed was for Yamcha to get killed just so Vegeta could burn off some energy, so she inserted herself into the situation. She is not a fighter and Vegeta could not feel proud or brave for beating her up, so why not test her limits with the Prince of all Saiyans?

It worked. Up until today she had been testing her limits with him, pushing him to get mad or closer to her. As a scientist she found him very interesting, and as much as they were different, they were very similar in some ways. She wanted to think that it was her pushing their connection, that motivated him to rescue her, but there are other, more selfish, reasons for him to want her around.   The truth is that she couldn’t know if he even felt the connection between them, or if he wasn’t too damaged from Frieza to build connections. Only time would tell.

Someone approaching brought her out of her thoughts. She held her breath, her grip on the vodka bottle tightened as she prepared herself for whatever was coming her way.

“What do you think you could do with that?”

It was only Vegeta, she let out a sigh, and raised the bottle to him before taking a long draught.

Vegeta stared at her as she made a show of her drink. He saw her face and how it was damaged from her ordeal, the colors it turned were more brilliant now then when he last saw her. And something inside him cringed at the thought of what happened or could have happened to her. It was a mixture of feelings sadness, anger, and worry. But he decided it was more annoyance than anything that he felt; he was annoyed that she was so weak, annoyed that she was left unprotected by her friends, annoyed that he had to lose time on his training, and mostly he was annoyed that his place of piece and quiet was violated by HER.

“You know that was the first time I ever got hit in the face. So tell me, how much prettier do I look?” She smirked at him and put the cloth back up to her eye.

“You’re drunk.”

“No, my good Sir. I am not nearly drunk enough. Well, either that or I’m too drunk. I’ll have one more just to make sure.” Bulma picked up her drink for another swig, but it was taken from her hand. “Hey.”

Vegeta lifted the bottle to his nose. “Why drink this?”

“To forget, to relax, to sleep.”

Vegeta eyed her and drank, “I’ve had worse.”

Bulma got up from the bed and walked over to the balcony wall. With her back to Vegeta she leaned on the railing. Feeling more relaxed, Vegeta decided to take advantage of the bed that Bulma just left.

“Can’t sleep either, huh?” Bulma glanced back. “Another nightmare?”

Vegeta tensed, _How does she…_

“I can hear you sometimes, screaming in the middle of the night.” She turned around and stared making her way back to the bed, “It’s a wonder you get up in the morning; you hardly get any sleep at all.” She crossed her arms and looked at him.

Vegeta was wondering where this was going. He raised the bottle, “I thought that was what this was for?”

“That,” Bulma put her hand on the neck of the bottle, “has its consequences in the morning as well.” She tried to take the bottle from him to drink again.

Vegeta pulled back on the bottle and with it made Bulma fall on the bed next to him. He could smell her again, and that along with the alcohol made him feel more relaxed than he had been in a very long time.

Bulma moved closer to his side and put her hand on the bottle again, except this time her hand was on top of his. She moved his hand and the bottle to take another drink. “I can help you, you know…sleep better.”

Vegeta eyed her again and raised his eyebrow.

Bulma rolled her eyes, “Not like that you perv! There are other things that can help you sleep. I bet getting a better nights rest would help you get closer to your goal.”

Vegeta considered what Bulma was saying as he emptied the bottle. After a few moments of silence, he turned to her to give his answer. But what he found was Bulma completely passed out next to him. He decided to stay a while more under the stars before he would go back inside.


	10. Beauty Sleep

Bulma woke up with a headache, but aside from that she also found herself cuddling with a certain Saiyan prince. He had is arm around her waist and his face was buried in her hair. She turned away from him to slide off the bed without disturbing the sleeping Saiyan; he looked so peaceful for once. But when she tried to slip out of his hold, it only got tighter.

 

Bulma let out a quite sigh, and turned back towards him. She looked at his face, _“He is kinda cute when he doesn’t have that scowl.”_ She gently put her hand on his shoulder, “Vegeta, it’s time to wake up.”

Suddenly she could feel his whole body tense, his face changed from a serene look to his normal scowl, and his onyx eyes were staring down at her.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to get out of bed, but someone wont let me go.” She indicated the position of his arm around her, and with a disgusted, and slightly surprised, look on his face he quickly removed himself from her.

“We must have fallen asleep out here,” Bulma sat up and started to stretch, then suddenly grabbed her head, “Oh, I think I drank too much.” She fell back down to the bed only to realize that Vegeta was gone. She decided that she was going to need a bit more nursing from her mother that morning before she tried to do anything else.

xxx

What was he thinking? How could he have let his guard down so much that he fell asleep next to her? And what time was it anyway? This day was getting off to a horrible start, he had already missed hours of training because of…HER!

As soon as he realized what position he was in when he woke up, he had felt exposed. Had he really been holding her in his sleep?

Well, he couldn’t let her get in the way of his training any more. It didn’t matter that she smelled nice or made him feel…things. No she was a distraction and he was only allowed to think about defeating Kakarot and the androids.

He made his way to the gravity chamber. He looked at the clock on the console, it was 10am he had slept 7 hours, he couldn’t remember the last time he wasted so much time asleep. He was going to have to start at a higher level to make up for the lost time.

 

He was up to 300 times gravity when Mrs. Briefs had called him for lunch. “This can’t be right. It usually takes me longer to build up to this much gravity. The damn woman’s machine must be reading the wrong gravity.” He took a towel from the bathroom of the chamber and wiped the sweat from his face. “ She is just going to have to fix it.”

xxx

Bulma was sitting in the kitchen with her mom. After she got off the roof she decided that she wanted to cover up her bruises, so she had her mother help her with some makeup. You would never tell by her face that she had been in a hostage situation yesterday, unfortunately the entire world already knew.

“We didn’t see either of you at breakfast this morning,” her mother chimed as Vegeta entered the kitchen, “Of course, after all the excitement you two must have slept in.”

Vegeta made his way to the table and sat down across from Bulma with a thud. “The gravity room is broken.”

Bulma looked up at him with a questioning look on her face, “What did you do to it?”

“It is reading higher than it actually is.”

“Strange,” she had just recalibrated it the other day, “I’ll check it out after we eat; it shouldn’t take long.”

“Hn.” Vegeta was then presented with a rather large plate of steak and noodles and began digging in.

“It certainly was quiet last night. I was worried that you wouldn’t get much sleep after all the excitement the other day, Bulma.”

“I managed.” She smiled.

Vegeta gave Bulma a death glare as if to say, _If you tell anyone about last night I will end you!_

It only made Bulma’s smile widen.

After lunch Bulma grabbed her gear from her lab and made her way to the gravity room. She opened the door only to be greeted by Vegeta.

“What took you so long?”

“I had to get my tools. Could you take it down a notch, my head still hurts.” Bulma sat down and started to plug in her computer to run diagnostics. “What makes you think it isn’t reading correctly?”

“It was too easy to get to 300 times gravity.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that it usually takes me an hour to warm up to that level and today it took half that time!”

The computer in her hand beeped. “Well, everything checks out, you really were working under 300xs gravity.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Bulma started packing up her computer, “Vegeta, did you ever consider that maybe your body was able to work better today because you got enough sleep last night?”

Vegeta rolled his eyes.

“You do realize that you can’t constantly run yourself on a few hours of sleep and expect to be at your best.”

“I don’t need training advice from a woman who thinks posing in awkward positions is a proper workout.”

“Hey! Yoga and palates keep my body in spectacular shape. “ Bulma stood with her hands on her hips. “Besides, even you can’t argue with results. One night of restful sleep and you are cutting your warm-up time in half; imagine what you could do if all your nights were as restful.”

“I am not sleeping with you on the roof…”

“I’m not talking about that! There are other things that can help you sleep,” she rubbed her forehead, “things that won’t hurt in the morning.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, like certain scents or sounds when you sleep, or making your room more warm.”

“You think the temperature of my sleeping quarters is too cold?”

“No I think that sleeping on a bed in a room with nothing but white walls and a nightstand is a less than relaxing.”

Vegeta stood there with his arms folded at his chest, _I suppose she has a point._ “Fine.”

Bulma scoffed, “Fine…fine what?”

“Do those things you said, and we’ll see if I get stronger.”

“What do you mean, do those things? I can’t do those things; I have no idea what you find relaxing. If you want me to help you, you are going to have to work with me.” Bulma paused for a moment to let it sink in, when she didn’t see him budge she shifted her stance to match his, “Unless you really don’t mind pink.”

“Fine. When do we do this?”

“Now.”

“Now? Why now?”

“Because if we pick out everything now, then it can be ordered and set up for tonight.”

Vegeta thought about it, then sighed and moved his arms to his sides.

Bulma started to leave the gravity room and took one of his arms to lead him over to the house. “Come on, Vegeta. This’ll be fun.”

“Woman, you and I have very different definitions of fun.”


	11. Pierre

Their first stop was in Bulma’s lab, she held up a tablet, pressed a few buttons, and four screens came down around them.

“First you can tell me what kind of environment makes you feel comfortable.”

“A battlefield in the aftermath with the silence of dead surrounding you.”

Bulma typed in her tablet and suddenly a battlefield scene surrounded them with corpses everywhere. She looked around and tried to see what Vegeta would see, ‘ _I guess this is peaceful in a macabre kind of way.’_ But when she looked at Vegeta he seemed a little disappointed. “Doesn’t work for you?”

“It’s not the same when it’s not your own work.”

“It doesn’t seem that relaxing. What about something more natural?” A few more clicks and a beach scene came up.

“Why is this relaxing?”

“I guess people find this relaxing because it brings back memories of good times or it represents a break from their normal life.”

“Memories? You want me to be nostalgic for something I’ve never experienced?”

“I guess you’re right. How about we focus on colors for now?” She brought up a pallet of colors and hues for the prince to choose from. “So what color are you drawn to?”

After a few minutes the Prince settled on a red and a blue color as his two favorites. “I can work with this. Now we get to the fun part, but I’m going to need you to change into some human clothes.”

Before Vegeta had time to argue Bulma had taken out her phone and was talking to someone. “Pierre, hi, this is Bulma Briefs. I wanted to do some shopping today, can you give me the floor? Great, I’ll be there in 20 minutes.”

Somehow Bulma talked Vegeta into wearing some black jeans, a white t-shirt, a grey sports coat.

"Great, now you almost look human."

They walked into the garage and Bulma got into her Zenvo ST1. Vegeta just stood there with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"What?"

"I refuse to ride in your pathetic excuse for a transportation device."

"Oh, come on, Vegeta. It's not like we can just fly out of here. Have you seen the mob of reporters outside?"

He had to admit to himself that this vehicle looked a lot faster than the transport that he rode in when they moved the Nameks from the middle of nowhere to Bulma's house.

"It's only to distract the people outside, we can loose them and you can fly us the rest of the way if you want."

"Fine." Vegeta sighed. He hopped in the car and Bulma handed him a pair of sunglasses.

"These will help hide your face."

"Woman, no one knows who I am."

"Yes, and that is the way I would like to keep it."

Vegeta was confused by her answer, but was startled by the loud roar of the engine as the car sprang to life.

Bulma smiled at his reaction, "Hold on."

She revved the engine and took off out of the garage. Vegeta could see what Bulma meant about the people who had gathered at the edge of the property. Bulma sped down the drive, no slowing as they approached the gate, she pressed a button and suddenly the gate vanished. Bulma was driving like a madwoman and didn't flinch when she nearly ran over a few of the slower reporters.

"Leeches."

Vegeta turn to see all of the reporters scrambling to their cars to follow them. Then they were out of site when Bulma took a sharp turn around some buildings.

"Now they'll leave to come find me. I call this my get-away car. I almost can't believe they still fall for this." Bulma was addressing Vegeta's prior confusion, "They know this is my car, and now they think I'm out of the house and spread out all over town to find me."

"Why?" Vegeta didn't even know why he was asking, normally he wouldn't care about Bulma's babblings, but since he was here and apparently they were now on the run, he thought he would ask.

"After yesterday, I'm guessing they want a picture of my face."

Vegeta had noticed that she no longer looked like she had been in a fight, _Did she really heal that quickly?_ As he took a closer look he realized that her face was still puffy and the colorful bruises were masked by skin-toned paint. It looked pretty convincing, and he suddenly felt a sick feeling remembering what her face looked like the night before. _Why would her face bother me?_

"We're here." Bulma had pulled into a parking garage in uptown West City. She and Vegeta got out of the car and Bulma encapsulated it. They headed to a large design house that looked as if it were closed, but they were greeted by a rather flamboyant man.

"BULMA, darling, how are you? You look stunning, who would have imagined. And only you could look this good after what happened." He air-kissed each side of her face. "So, you have come to Pierre for a little retail therapy, I can't blame you. We have some great stuff in, [side mouth whisper] I'm not even supposed to have it yet." Then he spotted Vegeta, "Oooooh, and who is this delicious hunk of man meat? Bodyguard? Arm candy? Boy toy? Well whatever he is he's certainly a step up from that last Neanderthal you were seeing."

"Pierre."

"Sorry love, but I only say it because it's true. That ball player was out of his league, and I don't know how he could play the game when you had all his balls mounted on the wall. Did he ever get those back in the divorce?"

That comment earned a headshake from Bulma and a smirk from Vegeta. "See, he knows what I'm talking about. Don't cha big boy?" Pierre winked at Vegeta.

"This is Vegeta, he is a friend of mine, and we are here for some furniture and linens for his room."

"Ooh he must be special, usually you leave the decorating to your mother. She even did Yamcha's room. This IS a treat, follow me and I'll pull some books and samples for you."

Pierre walked into the show room. Bulma turned to Vegeta with a smile and said, "You ready?"


	12. Rain Check

It had been an interesting day at the designer’s studio, surprisingly Vegeta seemed to enjoy being fawned over. Well, Vegeta’s enjoyment face looked much like everyone else’s “there’s nothing special here, but you have my limited attention face”, his royalty training at work. But Bulma was going to take any reaction that wasn’t blowing up the place. She had managed to have a good time focusing on something that wasn’t the haunting media attention or the prospect of having to return to work and dealing with anything that happened yesterday.

It turned out that Vegeta had pretty good taste. Bulma had realized that growing up the way Vegeta had had limited his exposure to luxury, so she made sure he got the chance to touch and see as many of the fabrics and furniture styles as possible. She had told him to pick out the things he liked the best and said that she and Pierre would find a way to make it work best.

“I think we have picked out everything we need, plus a few extras.” Bulma smiled she could tell that Vegeta was approaching his limit of “Pierre time” as was she. “I want it delivered and set up back at the house before the end of today.”

“Of course, Bulma, we will have everything ready to perfection. You can trust Pierre.”

Bulma and Vegeta headed to the parking garage. “So, that wasn’t too painful was it?”

“It better be worth it, I’ve already missed training yesterday, and now I’ve sacrificed another day.”

“I think this might have been good for you. Sometimes you need a break, it lets you reset and refresh.”

“As if I need that.”

Bulma let out a sigh, “Well, I did.” Vegeta saw for a moment the dread wash over her countenance only to have her mood shift to false happiness once again. “I suppose I couldn’t interest you in some ice cream while we’re out?”

Vegeta gave her a questioning look.

“It’s food. It’s cold and sweet and creamy. I think you’ll like it.” Just as Vegeta was about to reply a flash caught both of them off-guard. Bulma grabbed Vegeta’s arm and headed towards the elevator. “It’s just the media people, come on.” She hit the button for the rooftop and the elevator doors closed leaving a dozen paparazzi stuck on the second level.

“What was that? Why are we running?”

“Paparazzi, they want to take my picture and sell it.”

“Why?”

“They always try to do that. Because of who I am people want to know about my life, what I look like, where I shop, who I’m with, any mundane detail they can get.”

“Spies. I’ll blast them.”

“No, Vegeta, you can’t do that.”

“The hell I can’t.” Vegeta put his hand out ready to fire at the door when it opened.

Bulma quickly got in front of him and pushed his hand down. “I need them, Vegeta. The press is a big part of my business; I can’t afford to have a bad relationship with them. Killing the pests that try to take my picture is illegal, and there are too many people that want to take me down. Being responsible for the deaths of people would cause a lot of problems for me.”

“Take YOU down?”

“Yeah, didn’t you notice what happened yesterday? That wasn’t the first time my life and business have been threatened. Granted, that was probably the closest anyone has gotten to following through with their threats.”

The door opened revealing the roof to be empty.

“Good they haven’t gotten up here yet. You can fly home from here. I’ll lead them away in the car and make my way back later. We’ll have to take a rain check on that ice cream.”

“Hn.” Vegeta was not about to run while a weakling female became the object of a hunt so he could get away.

“It’s that directiooooooon.” Bulma’s words were cut off as Vegeta roughly grabbed her waist and proceeded to fly the both of them in the direction of capsule corp. “What are you doing?” Bulma screamed as she wrapped her arms around Vegeta’s neck.

“Going back to the house. What does it look like?”

Bulma didn’t think he wouldn’t want to carry her, but if he was just going to do it, she wasn’t going to complain. For the rest of the ride home she stayed quiet and held tight.

He landed on “their” balcony and released Bulma. She smoothed out her hair, “Thanks, Vegeta.”

“What’s a rain check?” he had been wondering about the odd term and how rain had something to do with food.

“It’s an expression. It means that we would get the ice cream another day. It started out when sports games couldn’t be played because of rain. They would give the people watching a rain check to attend another game, once the weather changed.”

Apparently satisfied with the answer, he proceeded to go back to his training.

xxx

Vegeta was doing some intense multi-bot ki work at 400xs earth’s gravity. The sweat was pooling off his skin and racing to the ground as he finished his last set for the night and began the shutdown process for the gravity room. His training clothes were especially designed to help keep him cool in the hazardous environment, yet another contribution made by the blue-haired scientist.

She had seemed off kilter today. There was none of her whining, complaining about his attitude, or arguing with him. Usually when they met at least one of them would start in on the other. _Could what happened to her really have affected her so much?_ He shook the thought from his head, _Why would I care?_

 _Perhaps she is finally realizing her place with him and has come to respect and revere him after his rescue of her._ “That has to be it.”

He made his way to his room interested in seeing what it would look like. He wasn’t sure in the woman’s plan on getting a room that would make him sleep better, but so far many of the things she came up with had helped him in some way. When he opened the door he was utterly shocked.

“Not a damn thing…” Not ONE DAMN THING was changed in his room. The walls, the furniture, the bed, everything was all the same. “Damn wench! She took me away from training to go through all that stuff. Waste my invaluable time!” And the grand total was nothing. All of that compliance and agreeable attitude was for what? Her own amusement? His fists balled around the towel he had been using to dry up the remainder of his sweat. She thinks she could make a fool out of me? She will pay…

“Hey, Vegeta, you finally finished for the day.” She was in the doorway of his room smiling.

_What nerve! What gaul! What…_

“What is the meaning of this? You have taken away time from my training. Training that is to make me stronger for the upcoming battle with the androids. A battle to save you and your pathetic race on this pathetic mud ball. All for the promise of sleeping quarters that were not “white walls and a nightstand”.” The Prince of all Saiyans was livid and made all the more so by Bulma just standing there with no reaction to his rant.

“Are you done?” Bulma smiled and cocked an eyebrow.


	13. The Room

“Are you done?”

 

Vegeta was struggling between annoyance, shame, and a bit of disappointment that he had at the lack of a fight.  

 

“Before you decided to have your little tantrum, I was about to bring you to your NEW room that I spent the rest of the day getting ready. All of the things that you picked out wouldn’t fit in there, so we had to move you to a different room.”

 

She turned to walk out, "Well?"

  
Bulma led him upstairs and down the hallway. She stopped at the door that came before what he knew to be her room. "The rooms on this level are bigger and more private than the guest rooms below." She put her hand on the knob and turned back to him again, she looked almost nervous, "If you don't like something we can still change it."  
  
Vegeta rolled his eyes, "Are you going to let me in, or am I sleeping out here?"  
  
Bulma groaned and opened the door.  
  
The room was much larger than any that he had before, or at least what he could remember.  The walls were done in a medium grey that reflected the light but it felt warm. There was more furniture and it was bigger.  Bulma explained that the bed was cherry wood with large posts at the foot and head of the bed; he noticed the headboard had carving with gold inlay that accented the scrollwork. The bedding looked luxurious enough for a prince. There was a bench at the foot of the bed with a press of a button it would open and raise up a large flat screen TV. 

 

In the corner there were some built in bookshelves and some large leather chairs for reading, Bulma said she picked out a few she thought he would like, something about the art of war. There were nightstands in the same fashion as the bed that held a clock and another machine. 

 

There was a closet and an en-suite with his own shower and tub, and he recognized some of the fluffy drying cloths that he liked between the shower and tub.  In the closet there were more clothes there and not just his usual workout gear. 

  
He returned to the bedroom where Bulma was waiting with a gift bag in her hand. "So this is a little something to finish off the look."  
  
He reached in the bag and pulled out a folded dark blue blanket made of material that was so soft it had reminded him of his tail. He smoothed his fingers over it and looked up at her, he hadn't said anything about this fabric but somehow she had picked up that he liked it.   


"Here." She took the blanket from his hands and let it unfold to reveal the Saiyan royal crest that had been embroidered on it. He remembered months ago when she had been reviewing plans she had recovered from the remains of Kakarot's ship files.  The orders were signed with the Saiyan seal at the bottom, she had asked him to tell her what the symbols meant. He wasn't sure at the time why he indulged her questions, maybe because it felt good to remember where he came from and her request had been in earnest.  


"So how did I do?"  
  
Vegeta was still taking in everything, this space felt like…him. Not the mean, arrogant persona he showed to everyone, but the real him who liked peace and quiet and solitude and it was fine and luxurious deserving of a true prince.  
  
You didn't see the best part. Bulma walked over to the large window and opened it to reveal a balcony. "This way you can come in through here without having to pass through the house...if you don't want to."

 

After a few moments she turned to the machine on his side table, "This is an aroma diffuser. There are certain scents that are calming and you just put a drop in here." She held up a few vials, "these are the scents, and I've adjusted this so that it won't overwhelm you, I know your sense of smell is stronger than humans. And this is for when you do fall asleep, she showed him a circle object with strings running in different directions with beads and feathers randomly scattered about.  "This is a dream catcher, it is supposed to stop bad dreams before they can get to your head." Vegeta scrunched his nose at the idea, "it's just for fun, but if it works t all the better, right?"  
  
After taking one more glance around the room, "This is adequate. We shall see if your witchcraft works or if you have wasted my time."  
  
Bulma huffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest, "you're welcome!" She rolled her eyes and sighed, “Well, it’s late and I’ve been working on this all day, so I’m gonna get to bed. Good night, Vegeta.” Bulma left him in his room to go to hers, Vegeta followed her Ki until he could tell she was well in her room and starting her nighttime ritual.

 

He could smell the aroma maker start to work, so he decided to wash off and enjoy his new bed. In the shower as he stood under the water he started to think again about everything that the woman had done for him and how she seemed different lately. _‘Why am I thinking about her again? Maybe she is up to something? Why would she do all of this? Is she just distracted because of what happened the other day or is she after something and trying to get on my good side?’_ He realized he was taking too long in the shower and shook off his thoughts and the water, and finally settled into his bed for the night.


	14. Facing Fear

It looked the same. The cleanup crews must have been working overtime to rid the building of the stain of the invasion a few days ago. She didn’t think she would be this calm coming here, but she didn’t have much choice, she had to get some things so she could get back to work. The lobby was quiet and empty, not the O.K. Corral shootout it had been the last time she was here.

She let out a deep breath, “Office, drawer, lab, hard drive.” She recited the list of things she needed and places she knew they were in. “Office first.”

She decided to take the stairs over the elevator, not ready to test her reaction to the closed space. Her office seemed grey, like a shadow had washed over the room. She walked behind her desk and got the reports that were in the desk drawer.

Suddenly something made a thud like a book decided at that moment to shift and hit the shelf. When she looked up she noticed an M-16 standing against the wall next to the door, “Must have been left behind.”

She froze and listened for a while, but all that was there was the gentle flow of air coming into the space. She took another long deep breath. “Get it together, Bulma. No one is here.” She shut the drawer and it felt like a bomb went off in the silence of the building. She shook it off, “lab, hard drive, home.”

The entry was open to the lab, that was unusual, but she brushed it off as the clean up crew needing to get into the space. She made her way to her workstation; her desk was still the ever-present mess that she had left it. After looking under a few stacks of plans she finally found the hard drive she was looking for, “There you are.” Disconnecting the drive she placed it on top of the reports she had already retrieved from her office. Before she could look up she heard a distinctive click.

She couldn’t move a muscle. She looked to her right and she saw him. At the end of the barrel of the M-16, pointed at her head, was one of Red’s soldiers.

Bulma only had enough time to close her eyes and pull her arms up to cover her head when she felt impact of the bullet.

She had hit her pillow hard and woke up with her hands in the exact same position as in her dream. She was panting as she slowly realized that what she had just been through wasn’t real. Slowly as her breathing returned to normal she finally moved her arms so she could let her body relax a bit. “Holy shit.” She looked at her clock, 6:00am, “It’s early, but I’m not going back to sleep.” She got up and started to get dressed.

 

Xxxxxxxx

Vegeta woke up from the most restful sleep he had ever remembered having. He stretched out in his new bed enjoying the fabric that surrounded him. He could get used to this.

After putting on his workout gear, he went downstairs for breakfast. He could smell the sausage and pancakes as he approached. Unfortunately it was mixed with the odor of a certain weakling. _‘What does HE want? I thought Bulma had run that idiot off?’_

Sure enough, he entered the kitchen to find Mrs. Briefs cooking and Yamcha sitting at the counter with a glass of orange juice.

“Oh, good morning, Mr. Vegeta. Did you sleep well?”

“Hun.” Vegeta nodded.

“That’s wonderful! Have a seat, I’ve got pancakes for you.”

Vegeta sat at his spot at the table as Bunny served him his food. He began eating and Mrs. Briefs continued her conversation with Yamcha.

“I’m sure Bulma is fine, Dear. When I see her around the house she does seem tired, but that is to be expected with all the excitement. Anyway, you can talk to her when she comes down for breakfast.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she’s fine. I just wanted to check on her… old habits.” Vegeta rolled his eyes at that last comment.

“That’s nice. Ooh look at the time, I’ve got to feed the rest of the animals before they eat each other.”

The absence of Mrs. Briefs left a very awkward silence between the two men in the kitchen. Well, Yamcha felt awkward as Vegeta devoured the plates of food Mrs. Briefs had placed in front of him.

“So, how’s the training going? Bulma come up with more bots?”

Vegeta just continued eating.

“Well, I’m going to check on Bulma.”

At that, Vegeta stood throwing his napkin down on the table. Yamcha froze while Vegeta turned and left for the yard without uttering a word, but some how managing to scare the shit out of Yamcha.

Vegeta started up his routine in the gravity room, determined to rid himself of the image of that lowlife somehow making his way back into the woman’s life.

Xxxx

Bulma had been siting in her car outside of Capsule Offices for about an hour trying to work up the nerve to go inside.

“This is ridiculous! There is nothing to be afraid of just go in.” After one more deep breath and checking her purse for her gun, she got out of her car and began walking toward the building.

There was still police tape and seal on the front entrance, but her card opened the doors anyway, that’s the perk of owning the place. She walked in and it wasn’t like her dream. The lobby looked like a crime scene. More police tape, evidence markers, and bullet holes in the walls and floor. It had the remnants of a shootout. She hadn’t been there for the full event that had taken place, but she could tell that it had gotten pretty heated.

She decided that to put an end to her nightmares and to show herself that there was actually nothing to fear that she would have to go back to her office. She looked over to the elevator that she had ridden down in with her captors. “Maybe the stairs would be better.” she began walking up the stairs that were in the lobby. As she reached the second floor landing she looked up, “51 flights of these… yeah, I’m taking the elevator.”

 

The ride wasn’t bad, she didn’t feel any anxiety in the small space like she thought she might. It made sense; after all she had been in elevators since then, even if Vegeta was with her at the time. He would probably say she was acting foolish right now. _‘He probably thinks it’s foolish to take elevators all-together.’_

Thinking about the stubborn Saiyan made her trip in the elevator go by much faster. When she got to her floor the mess was still there. Chairs overturned and papers strewn about the floor. Her office looked just like she had left it, no guns left behind. She walked to her chair and put it upright again. “I guess I need to go downstairs for this to finally be over.”

As she made her way to the lab she could feel her heart beating faster. The truth was that her lab was her second home and the more she thought about what happened the more violated, angry, and nervous she got. She stood in front of the lab entry taking one last deep breath before placing her key card up to the scanner.

The doors slid open to reveal the lab as it always was, “Well that was anticlimactic.” The desks and chairs were where they were supposed to be, nothing was dark and shadowy like in her dream, no absence of sound save for the beating of her heart, just her lab. “I knew it was all in my head.” She walked over to her workstation and sat down. She just sat there for a while looking at the charts and posters she had hung around her area, there was a particular favorite star map she would stare at when she was waiting for inspiration to hit, then she heard someone move behind her.

In less than a second she drew her gun and whirled around getting a site on the intruder. The black haired man stopped when he noticed she was aiming at him. It took a moment for recognition to hit, “Kami! What the hell do you think you’re doing sneaking up on me?”


	15. Unexpected Feelings

“What is wrong with you? Idiot! I could have shot you.” Bulma had lowered her gun and was now trying to calm her racing heart.

Yamcha lowered his ‘I surrender’ arms, “I’m sorry, Bulma. I wanted to make sure you were ok. Why are you here?”

Bulma sat back down and put the gun on her desk. “I was trying to show myself there was nothing to be afraid of.”

“Who were you expecting, that you needed a gun?”

Bulma huffed, “I had a nightmare last night, one of those guys found me down here and shot me before I woke up.”

“I’m sorry, Babe.” Yamcha came over and put his arms around her in a hug. “I would have come here with you. You didn’t have to do this alone.”

Moving out of his embrace she stood, “Thanks, Yamcha, I know you would, but I can’t bring you with me to work everyday. I had to do this by myself.” She smiled and put her hand on his shoulder, “Besides, I was doing fine, until SOMEONE decided to sneak in and scare the crap out of me. How did you know I was here?”

“I stopped by your house and you weren’t there for breakfast. Vegeta was though.”

Bulma’s eyes got wide, “And you survived?”

“I would brave even Vegeta’s company to make sure you were ok.”

“Uh huh.” Bulma chuckled. His statement was a bit amusing because Vegeta’s presence had been the subject of several arguments before they realized that they were really fighting about a relationship that was simply over. At one point Yamcha had even made an ultimatum over Vegeta living at Bulma’s. Bulma didn’t blink as he packed up his things to move to an apartment in the city. Shortly after they had made their breakup official, no feelings hurt, at least on her side. It probably wouldn’t be wise to let Yamcha know that Vegeta’s new room was closer to hers than even his had been.

“Did you eat? You’re mother hadn’t seen you; so I’m pretty sure you didn’t get breakfast. We could go to Fritz’s.” Bulma and Yamcha would frequent Fritz’s bistro when they had made a late night out into an early morning out, usually followed by an afternoon of delight.

Bulma narrowed her eyes at him.

“What? It’s just breakfast, I swear.”

“Hummmm, I guess there’s no harm in breakfast.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Vegeta was furiously working through his routine, it seems that the presence of the weakling a breakfast was eating away at him more and more. He tried his best to focus, but kept conjuring up images of Bulma sullen and crying. Every time they got back together, he would cringe. _‘Didn’t she understand she was better than that weakling?’_  

He knew that she had ended the relationship with scar-face, but he had also seen that happen before. It used to be nothing unusual for them to break up and be back together before the week was out. Towards the end of their last fight it sounded as if he would have to find a new living arrangement, but surprisingly she had chosen him over the weakling. It seemed that the power struggle between them had ended with Bulma taking up for him over the relationship.

After _he_ left, it had grown much more quiet around the compound, then there was that latest incident. Bulma had taken to working more and spent more time at the office and in the lab, than she had done before. Vegeta didn’t mind because it meant better equipment for him to train with. But now the pathetic fighter was back, and Vegeta knew that he would be trying to win back the woman. Perhaps he would have to make sure the break up was more permanent this time.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

As they pulled into the driveway, Bulma was ready to get inside the house. Breakfast with her ex did not go the way either of them planned. Yamcha had been acting like old times and trying to desperately to drop hints at rekindling their relationship. Bulma had been doing her best to keep him in the friend-zone without completely going off on him and making him cry. She hated playing nice like that, she just wished that they could actually be friends without him trying to get back in her pants. It was starting to get a little pathetic and was on the edge of annoying.

“Thanks, Yamcha, it’s great that we can still be friends without things getting too awkward.” Even though it had been quite the awkward outing, she was going to put this right where it belonged in it’s-not-going-to-happen territory, without being a total bitch about it.

“Sure, B. Anytime.” he paused in awkward silence waiting for her to invite him in and continue with this…whatever it was. But he could keep waiting, which was another trait that got more and more on her nerves as their relationship progressed. She would have to initiate almost everything in their relationship, except for sex of course.

“Well, I have some things to take care of. Can’t leave Capsule Corp on its own for too long.”

“Right,” then he took her into the most amazingly forced hug of her life. She didn’t mean to get stiff as a board at his touch, but she tried her best to make herself respond so he wouldn’t feel like a total creep. She was surprised at her reaction, _‘when did this become so…repulsive? This doesn’t feel right.’_ The hug seemed to last forever for her, but she was able to mentally check herself as he let go, “It was good to see you. I’m glad your doing better.”

“Bye, Yamcha. I’ll see you around.” She smiled. Her feelings of disgust seemed to have abated once he wasn’t touching her anymore.

When he had gotten down the drive, she turned at went inside, determined to find something else to get her mind off the confusing emotions she was flooded with after her interaction with her ex.

But from a short distance away, someone had observed the couple and he wasn’t happy with what he saw.


	16. Sentinel

It was the same dream that had been haunting her for the past two weeks.

She was all dressed up, this time for a wedding…her wedding. Her white dress and veil along with a bouquet of flowers were beautiful, but she was alone. She was outside of grand doors that were supposed to lead into the hall where her groom would be waiting for her. But every time they opened, she was taken back to that basement lab. Then she was on the cold table unable to move. She called out for someone to help her. In the doorway she could see Yamcha, or at least she thought it was him. As he approached, he turned into an evil figure with dark eyes and malice written in his face. It didn’t matter how hard she tried, there was no getting free. She could feel his weight on her and struggled as his hands began crushing her throat. That’s when she woke up in a cold sweat…again.

It was going on two weeks without a decent night’s sleep. She kept waking up with the feeling of dread and helplessness. The dream would keep morphing the bad guy; sometimes it was a random RR soldier, Yamcha, Frieza, or one of his minions. It always started the same, and always ended with her screaming for help and no one coming.

She had been sure that it had something to do with confronting her fears about her workspace, but she had been back to work in both her office and the labs. Nothing was changing. She had even hired someone to give her private self-defense lessons, which she was keeping secret. She didn’t need pitiful looks from Yamcha or the others and their promises of protection. She would take care of this herself; she was sure her dream would go away once she became more self-reliant.

Now she would go down and work for a while until breakfast. She learned that her bed was too comfortable and going back to sleep only brought the dream back with a vengeance. She needed to fix some bots for Vegeta any way.

 

“Woman!...Bulma! Where is that lazy…” he found her at her desk, nodding off. He had noticed that she wasn’t acting normally with her sleep patterns and now it seemed that it was affecting her work. “Bulma!”

She woke with a start, “Wha..huh? Oh, Vegeta.” Her eyes had dark circles underneath and she looked pale. “What do you want?” she deadpanned.

“These bots are unacceptable. I send them for repairs, and not only are they late, but they don’t even work properly.”

She yawned and ran her hand over her face and through her hair trying to wake up, “I’m sorry. Leave them here and I’ll take a look. I’ve been busy and..,” but she was interrupted when he slammed the bots on the table.

“No!”

“What? No? I can’t fix them now, I…”

“Of course you can’t fix them; you’re completely incompetent.” he growled as he searched her face for a reaction. When she could only stare at the bots, he knew something was wrong. Her fire was gone and for some reason this made him angry. So he lifted her out of her chair and hung her over his shoulder, then he started to get a reaction out of her.

“What are you doing? Put me down you brute!”

“Quiet! I’m done with this foolishness. You refuse to take care of yourself, so now I’m treating you like the child you want to act like.”

“I am fine and I don’t need YOU to tell me what to do. Put me down…Where are you taking me?”

“To bed.” he marched up the stairs and into his room where he dropped her onto his bed.

She looked up at him with wide eyes, “What are you doing?”

“Putting you to bed, you have neglected to get proper reset and it is interfering with your work, which is now interfering with MY training. So now I’m going to make sure that you sleep.”

“Why are we in YOUR room?”

“Because of all the sleep magic you set up for me, remember.”

Bulma sat up on his bed, “Magic? Vegeta, there’s no magic. I just changed some things and made it more comfortable for you to get rest.”

“Then it should work on you.”

“I don’t want to go to sleep. I’m not tired!” she tried to get off his bed, but Vegeta blocked her.

“I don’t care. You are going to sleep and I’m going to make sure you do.”

“I can’t.”

“What? Don’t be ridiculous, of course you can…”

Sounding completely defeated she flopped on his pillow, “No, I can’t.” There was a short pause, “I keep waking up because I have the same dream over and over. I don’t want to…it’s not … it keeps getting worse and I don’t want to go to sleep.” She wouldn’t look at him, she felt so stupid saying it out loud. Being scared of a nightmare, he was right; she was acting like a child. When he didn’t say anything she continued, “It’s always the same; that time in the lab before you found me…this is stupid.”

She moved to get up again, but he pushed her back down on the bed. “No.”

She looked at him with wide eyes. Didn’t he understand that she was scared? Was he really going to make her relive that nightmare, just so he could improve his training? The thought made her eyes tear up. Part of her couldn’t believe she was about to cry over this, and another part was hoping her tears would make him uncomfortable enough to let her leave.

“I will stay.”

“What?”

“You built this room to promote better sleep and good dreams, but if that doesn’t work I will stay.” The truth is he knew about her fears, and he understood not wanting to enter those worlds willingly. “You did not have those nightmares when we fell asleep on the roof.” The truth was that neither did he have bad dreams when she was there.

She let out a defeated sigh. The truth was, she was really tired and didn’t know how long she would have stayed awake anyway and this bed was feeling better and better the longer she laid there. “Fine.”

Having accepted surrender, he took his watch standing next to the bed with his arms crossed over his chest as she kicked off her shoes and got under the covers.

Annoyed she turned to him, “You’re not just going to stand there, are you?”

“What would you have me do?”

“At least lie down next to me; it’s unnerving having someone standing over you while you sleep.” She thought he wouldn’t and she would just have to try and fall asleep with him leering over her.

She was shocked when he joined her on the bed but on top of the covers. She could feel his warmth next to her and heard his steady breathing. She yawned and snuggled deeper into the bed. When his presence felt too much like a ghost she made the bold move of putting her hand on his arm. He had opened his eyes at this and looked at her, “Just so I know you’re there.”

Apparently, this was a good enough explanation for him. He allowed the connection as they both settled in she to sleep and he to stand guard against her nightmares.


	17. Prying Eyes

When she woke up several hours later he was gone, but his place on the bed was still warm. He must have heard her stirring and left. She felt rested for the first time in days. She looked around his room, it felt so different, more like him than it had before. Things had actually moved since she’d been in there last, some books were beside the reading chair items on the dresser and side tables arranged in his own preference. She smiled to herself, happy that he had started to make this place his sanctuary, much like her own room was to her. Then she started to realize that she was in the middle of Vegeta-land and had been “invited” by the surly prince himself. _‘Why would he do that?’_

It wasn’t like he couldn’t have gone to her father for new bots, he had before. Maybe this was the Saiyan’s way of doing something nice for her? _‘Na, that couldn’t be it. He must have some other reason for bringing me here… Maybe he…Don’t be ridiculous! Vegeta doesn’t think of me that way. Don’t over-think this, Bulma. Men are simple, he only trusts me to do the bots and needed me to get some sleep so he could train harder.’_

Perhaps it was the build-up of lack of sleep that allowed her to convince herself with such a weak argument, but now she was ready to go back to work. She just needed a bit of breakfast to get going. She left his room, but not before making the bed again. It would likely never be up to his highness’s standards, but she wasn’t going to be a rude guest in his domain.

 

He hadn’t meant to sleep there the whole night…with her. Vegeta woke up with the sun on his face and Bulma next to him. In his sleep, his arm had moved to hold her and his nose was drawn to her hair. _‘Thank the gods of Vegeta that she hadn’t awaken in the night.’_ She had been fast asleep when he left, he couldn’t help but notice that his rest was more sound than usual.

By lunchtime, Bulma had dropped off the newest edition of battle bots for Vegeta to train with. She had left him a note with the capsule case:

Thanks for the nap! Hope these make things interesting for you J

“Hn.” Vegeta took the case from the ground in front of the gravity room. “Let’s see how long these last.”

The bots had been far better than the last set and were giving him a pretty good run for his money. It had been a few weeks since he had forced Bulma to rest and so far he didn’t have to repeat the gesture. Before he would turn in at night, he would look in from her balcony to see that she was asleep. Every night he found her in her bed, most nights she would still be tossing and turning, but it seemed that once he arrived she would settle down. At first he thought she had seen him, but when he got a little closer, once even entering her room, he could see that she was in fact asleep.

Vegeta chalked this up to coincidence the first week, but as this went on, he began to suspect that she might actually be able to sense him. He tried a few experiments by elevating and holding back his power level to see if she would react differently. She seemed to still quicker when his energy was elevated, but one night she reacted oddly.

He was in a particularly bad mood and she wouldn’t be still no matter how high he pushed his power, he nearly broke the glass of her window. He began to wonder if his mood affected his power, or at least affected Bulma’s sensitivity to it.

He was beginning to realize that what was between him and the woman was more than comrades. He wanted more…he wanted to be more…for her.

He saw the weakling standing in the doorway of one of the gyms. ‘Don’t tell me this pathetic excuse of a fighter is going to start training here.’ The last thing he needed was for him to start poking around his equipment trying to impress the woman with his displays. He headed over to the z fighter with the intention of running the scar-faced human off, but he was stopped by the sound of a large thud and a feminine grunt. Whatever was making those noises seemed to have Yamcha’s full attention as he watched from the doorway. Vegeta was intrigued and decided to have a look himself and got closer, he was surprised at what he observed.

“Rah,”

“Too high.”

“Oomph!” Bulma was laid out on the floor after attempting to kick a very large, well-muscled man, who was serving as an instructor.

Bulma got up and they continued their match. Vegeta watched with amusement and curiosity.

…a little earlier

“Protect your face, keep your hands up.” Bulma changed her hands to block the next series of blows. “Good.”

“So, you mother tells me that you have broken up with that Yamcha fellow.” Bulma rushed him with a series of punches all blocked by her uncle. “She is concerned that you don’t go out anymore.”

“I’ve been busy.” Bulma moved her feet to switch sides in her stance.

“Yes, she’s told me. You’ve kept yourself busy to remove yourself from the public eye. She says that episode months ago is still bothering you. She says you haven’t been sleeping right.” A well-placed kick went straight to the leg pads he was wearing.

“I sleep just fine.” Two jabs and an uppercut landed with decent force to the hand guards.

“And the lessons?”

“Do you not want to spend time with your favorite niece?”

“You’re hiding.”

Bulma checked herself, “You told me to stand like this.”

“Not your stance, your life, you are hiding away because you’re afraid of something.”

Bulma huffed and charged her teacher with renewed vigor.

“Maybe you should try going on a date or two, you know get out there and mingle a bit. Your mom says there’s a fella hanging around here you’re sweet on.”

Bulma’s energy was up, but she over extended and her uncle laid her out on the floor with a flip, “I pay you to kick my ass, not give me love advice.”

“Consider the advice on the house.” he reached to help her up, “Get some water.”

Bulma walked over to her towel and water bottle, glistening with sweat.

“You’re improving, your instincts were always good, but I’m not sure that you are getting past whatever you’re trying to fight through. You seem stuck.”

“I know, but nothing seems to work. I’ve gone back to the office, made friends with Yamcha, and this training… I’m still having nightmares and I still feel…off.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re not moving forward with your life.” Bulma rolled her eyes. “How old are you? And you’re not married, no kids, no boyfriend, and you spend all your time with an old marine.”

Bulma exasperatedly grasped her chest, “Et tu Brute.”

They both got up and started their practice again. After a few more minutes of sparing, Bulma looked up to see that both Yamcha and Vegeta were watching her. This of course caused her to momentarily forget her opponent and resulted in a hard fall on the mat. Yamcha and Vegeta flinched as the heiress went down. Bulma’s uncle bent down to check on her. “You alright?”

“Yeah.”

He turned back to see the two observers in the doorway, “Seems like you were distracted, maybe one of them could help you with your problem.” He reached down to help her up, but she refused.

Still breathing hard, “I think I’ll stay here a while and admire the ceiling.”

Bulma’s uncle chuckled and slapped her leg, “Well, suit yourself, and, Bulma, try to have some fun and not all this crazy work/training stuff.”

“I’ll think about it.”

As the instructor left, Vegeta couldn’t help but notice the rise and fall of Bulma’s chest as she laid out on the ground. He was taken back to the time when he held her close after getting her out of the lab. He remembered how soft she felt as she wrapped her arms around him. He noticed now that her flat stomach seemed more defined than before, she must have been training for a while to get a change like that. What was she preparing for?

Vegeta’s concentration broke as he saw the weakling approach her sprawled out form. Vegeta’s inner beast growled at the thought of the beta male getting close to her again.

“Hey B. What are you doing?” Yamcha stood over Bulma.

“I’m knitting a sweater. What does it look like?”

“If you wanted to learn how to fight, you could have asked me; I would have taught you.”

Bulma stopped huffing her mood suddenly changing, “What makes you think I didn’t know how to fight?”

Yamcha had been in the eye of Bulma’s wrath before and wanted to avoid the brunt of it, “Well it’s just that, I’ve never seen you fight, it’s not like you are a martial artist, and you ARE on the ground.”

Bulma glared at her ex and quickly swept her leg, kicking his feet out from under him, causing the fighter to fall. “Ha, who’s on the ground now?”

She had only half expected her maneuver to work, he was right she wasn’t a martial artist per se, but she wasn’t helpless. She got up and walked to her towel, “Seems like you are the one who needs to step up his training.”

“Awe, come on, B.”

“Seriously, I thought you were in the desert training. Why are you here?”

“I just came to check on you. Your mom called.”

“Arg! I wish everyone would stop pestering me. I’M FINE!” Bulma picked up her gear and stormed out of the gym only to find the Prince of all Saiyans snooping as well. “Not you, too?”

Vegeta wasn’t sure what to say. He couldn’t have anyone thinking that he was doing what that weakling was, or even worse, caring what that weakling was up to, which was his real purpose. So he had to think of something, “I’m here for the rain.”

“What?”

“The rain thing, you promised some kind of iced milk thing and said we had to wait for the raincheck.”

It took a moment for Bulma to remember what the Prince was talking about, but then it clicked, “Oh, you mean ice cream. Wow that was weeks ago, I thought you’d forgotten.”

“Well, I have not. The Prince of Saiyans forgets nothing; you owe me a debt and I’ve come to collect.”

Bulma’s shoulders dropped and she let out a breath, “I guess you’re right. Why don’t we both go shower and change and meet downstairs in 45 minutes.”

“Hnh.”

The two walked away and left a gaping Yamcha on the floor. He was completely stunned, “Did Vegeta just ask her out on a DATE?!”


	18. Date

Vegeta found out that he liked ice cream.Bulma had met him downstairs at the prescribed time and they took off again in one of her fancy vehicles.This time she took him further away to an area that wasn’t as crowded, there were smaller shops and they walked to a park.Bulma explained that communities would set up places for children to play and for trees and flowers, which seemed odd because there were plenty of trees on this planet.

“Vegeta, there are lots of trees in the undeveloped parts of the world, but humans don’t live there.”

“Then they should move, if you like trees, why live in a space covered in rock and metal?”

“Some people do, like Goku.He lives with Chi chi and Gohan on Mount Piaozou.There are lots of trees there.”She licked up the drip from her cone, “I could never live there though, too quiet.”

Vegeta huffed, “Woman, no where you are, is ever going to be quiet.”

“Ah, rude.”She bumped her shoulder against his and smiled at him, “I’m not that loud.”

They were quiet for a while, just sitting on a bench and slowly eating their ice cream cones, of course Bulma had an ice cooler with more cones for Vegeta.It was a nice day, there was a light breeze and the sun was shinning, but something felt off.The bluenette at his side was subdued; he had hoped his prodding would rile her up like it usually did, but she didn’t respond the way he expected.

“So, how is training going?”

“Hn, I am improving; it just doesn’t seem enough to make the transformation.But I feel close.”

“Are the bots helping?You haven’t asked for any new ones since that last batch.”

“They are still working.Why was that man there today?”

Bulma had resorted to licking the drips that were running down to her hand, “Yamcha?”

“No, the older one.”

“Oh, that’s my uncle Jack, I asked him to train me.He is ex-military.”

“Why?”

“He took a bullet in his leg and they discharged him.”

Vegeta rolled his eyes as he reached for another cone, “Why is he training you?You will not need to fight anyone.”

“I would think you of all people wouldn’t think it strange for someone to train.”

“We’re talking about YOU.”

“Why is it so surprising to everyone that I would know how to fight.I mean I couldn’t take on you or Goku, but I’m not helpless.I went to Namek, too.I even took out some of Frieza’s henchmen.”

Vegeta gave her a look of derision, “I’ve been on this planet for the better part of a year, and you have only started training recently.”

Bulma let out a defeated sigh, “I feel…wrong.Ever since those guys came in my office, I just feel like…like…like I’m not in control of anything.I know that I’m ok and it’s not like I’m afraid that it will happen again.But they were in my space, my REALM, where I am queen grand master of all I survey.My whole life I always felt like I was in control, but now, after everything, I’m just…shaken.What’s worse is how useless I’ve become.All of you are training for the androids.”

“You are not useless.You lack power, but what’s in here is…formidable.”He pointed to his brain. “I imagine that if you could wield Ki, that you would be a rival to any warrior.”

“Hn.You think?”She looked at him with hope, “Why are you being so nice to me?”

Vegeta quickly changed the subject, “Is the weakling staying again?”

“You mean Yamcha?”

“Hn.”

“I don’t think so, why?”

“You are distracted when he is here.”

“Why should you care if I’m distracted?I would think that you would like it if I didn’t bother you.”

“You do not bother me.”His words hung in the air, Bulma was shocked at what she just heard.“As long as you’re on hand to fix my gravity room and provide me with new training bots.”

Bulma rolled her eyes, “Geesh, thanks, Vegeta.”Bulma was about to reply with a sarcastic remark when something dropped from the sky and landed in front of the bench, “What the..”

Vegeta dropped his cone and had one hand ready to destroy the intrusion and the other had reflexively moved to grab Bulma.The object seemed to do nothing but sit where it fell, “What is it?”

…

When Bulma didn’t respond, Vegeta turned his head to look at what was wrong, and that’s when he realized.The palm of his hand had landed on Bulma’s perky, soft, warm, squishy breast.Bulma was so shocked that she could only stare at the masculine paw that had leapt onto her; it was only after a tentative squeeze that she was broken out of her stupor.

Once she could speak again, she quickly grabbed his wrist and removed his hand from her, “It’s a drone.”

Vegeta, who himself had been a bit distracted, returned his attention to the invader, “What does that mean? Is it like the bots you give me?”

“It’s a toy, sort of, people like to fly them around, they can take pictures and video.But they’re usually supposed to be restricted to certain parts of the park.” Bulma picked up the drone and examined it.“It’s a beginner model, probably got away from its owner.Hold this while I look up the registration number; don’t break it.”

While Bulma was looking up the information on her phone, Vegeta felt a small tug on his pant leg.Vegeta looked down to find a small child with big eyes, brown hair, and holding a remote control in his hand, “Excuse me, Mister, that’s mine.”

“This almost hit us.Why are you not in the designated zone?”

The kid looked like he was about to cry, “I’m sorry.It’s really my brother’s but he won’t let me fly it, so I come here.Please don’t tell him!”

Bulma’s attention finally turned to this new situation, “Vegeta, what did you do?”

“I did nothing, this brat says he is responsible for the thing.”

“Well if you didn’t DO anything, why is he crying.”

‘How did I get in this situation?’ Vegeta didn’t deal with children.Hell, he had only met a few kids in his entire life.“You stole this from your brother, you started flying where you shouldn’t, and you crashed it almost hitting us.Why should I give this back?”

The kid’s face dropped, then started to get squintched as if he was about to burst into tears. “Please, my brother…I promise I won’t do it again.”

Vegeta raised his brow, “I will let you leave with this.”The child’s eyes dried up and were filled with hope, “But first you must train.You will show me that you can fly this without crashing or hitting anything, 100 maneuvers.”

Bulma sweat-dropped, of course Vegeta would turn this into training. 

“But I’m not good.”

Vegeta smirked and nodded towards Bulma, “She will teach you.”

“What?Why are you volunteering me for this?”

The kid looked over to Bulma, “But she’s a girl.My brother says girls aren’t good at planes.”

Bulma was really annoyed now, “Well, your brother is a moron.”

“That’s a bad word.”

Bulma took a deep breath, “Do you want a lesson or not?”

The kid looked from Bulma to Vegeta and back to Bulma, “Yes mam.”

30 minutes later, the little shit was on his last few maneuvers. Bulma had been a good teacher despite the child’s claim that girls weren’t good at planes.Vegeta had actually enjoyed seeing Bulma get all worked up; right up until she made that drone thing follow him around bumping him on the shoulder. 

“99, 100.Look, Mister, I did it!” Vegeta stood with his arms crossed and gave the young boy a nod.

“Yes, you did good.Probably better than your brother, now.” Bulma started to get up from her spot and reached for Vegeta to help her up.Without really thinking, Vegeta took her hand and allowed her to pull herself up.

“Are you a mommy and daddy?” The pair both looked at each other in surprise.“My brother says only daddies hold hands with girls.”

Bulma shook her head, “Kid, you need to stop listening to your brother.”She reached for the last cone from the cooler and handed it to the kid, “Here, you should head home now.”

His face lit up with excitement, “Gee, thanks!”and he took the cone and ran off.

“What a precocious child.Makes you want to invest in birth control.”Bulma turned to Vegeta, “You handled that well.”

Vegeta had been waiting for her to lay into him on how he should have acted with the child, but her complement surprised him, “Hn.”

Bulma wondered, “Did you ever think about having some?”

Vegeta eyed her with shock.

“You know, a couple dozen little Vegetas running around terrorizing the universe.It would be so cute; they’d have your gravity defying hair and that adorable scowl of yours.”Bulma was poking him in the shoulder.

Vegeta had never thought of having children; he never really got the opportunity to imagine the possibility of carrying on his bloodline let alone spend time thinking of what his progeny would look like.His goal was to avenge his people; long ago he relegated himself to being the last of his kind. “I never thought I could.All the female Saiyans died on planet Vegeta.”

Bulma’s joking tone quickly died as she realized what Vegeta’s reality was before he came to live with her.He must have been so alone. “I’m sorry about that, but you’re here now and we know that Earthlings are compatible with Saiyans.Maybe if you wanted you could start a family.You know carry on your line of royal Saiyans, even if they are hybrids.Plus you could have a family that’s yours.”

Vegeta rolled his eyes, “Humans, such sentimental creatures.It’s a wonder how your species survived this long.”

Bulma was offended; she was only trying to help, “Hey! Maybe our sentiment is a good thing; there are over 7 billion of us family and friend loving humans.Maybe if Saiyans valued family a little more there would have been enough to stop Frieza before he…”Bulma stopped realizing how mean she was being.Vegeta lost everything to that monster.

“You can say it.He blew up our planet; no amount of manpower was going to save them.”

Bulma felt terrible now, “I’m sorry.”There was an awkward pause for a few moments before Vegeta surprisingly broke the silence.

“You do not want children.”

“Wa, me?”Bulma was shocked to hear Vegeta’s seeming interest in whether or not she wanted kids.“Well, I don’t not want children.I mean, I guess I would want one, if I was with the right person.Eventually, I’ll find someone.It’s not like I have to have a husband, but I don’t want to raise a child alone.”


End file.
